From Behind Sunglasses
by Fraulein Hilde
Summary: A day in Konoha through the eyes of Shino Aburame.


It was something horrible. Something that seemed to itch and prickle beneath his very skin. It had traveled up his spine and left a horrible cramp, which of course, had only made him slouch more. To add to that, there seemed to be a throbbing in his head, more like an annoyance than an actual headache, but uncomfortable just the same. What was wrong with him?

_Shino Aburame was bored._

Of course, you have to understand, while there were many things for the young ninja to do, like perhaps train, or help his father with housework, or collect bugs, he simply did not want to do any of these things. Which had, of course, led him into his current situation.

Shino Aburame was very, _very_ bored.

Finally, after several long minutes of lingering around in his room, doing nothing in particular, Shino decided that a walk was in order. _But of course, a ninja must always... hmmm... Forgot where I was heading with that one._

As the young man ambled down the stairs of his house, he began to ponder his options, none of which seemed very exciting. Maybe he should stop by the academy, just really quick, to reminisce about the old days.

So, with this idea in mind, he stepped through the doorway of his house and out onto the busy sunny Konoha street on which he lived. He suddenly felt paralyzed. Everyone was rushing somewhere, everyone seemed to have a goal in mind. Was it like this everyday? Shino wondered if he had fallen into a alternate universe, after all, this didn't seem like the universe he usually lived in. As he stood there pondering for a moment, he began to wonder if perhaps the universe was actually the same, but maybe _he_ was the one who had changed. Could boredom be _that_ powerful?

He shrugged off these troubling thoughts, and started toward the academy, trying hard to concentrate on his destination and his goal. _Uh, now what was his goal again?_

Unfortunately, just as Shino reached his destination, the academy, disaster struck.

"Why, hello there Shino!"

Shino paused, trying to figure out who called out his name so suddenly. _...Iruka._

"You're just the guy we needed around here!" Iruka smiled at him, a little _too _cheerfully. Gesturing for Shino to come closer, Iruka turned to his students, who looked to be around 7 years old, wide-eyed and full of energy. _That brings back some memories..._

"Pay close attention students, this here is Shino Abi...Abirami.. Ab..."

"Aburame."

"Yes! Aburame! And he'll be doing a demonstration for us!" Iruka laughed and slapped him on the back, startling the young ninja. "Won't you Shino?"

_Dammit._

It was unfortunate, really. But what was our young male ninja to do? You can't just say no to children, they're _children_. Only _jerks_ did that. And Shino Aburame was _not_ a jerk.

"Sure."

_...Dammit._

Shino tried not to sigh too heavily, as he muttered to his old teacher, "So, about this demonstration, what exactly would you like me to do?"

"Oh, well..." Iruka paused for a few seconds, but then added, "Well.. Maybe the kids could ask some questions first. You know, what it's like to be a genin and all that."

_Well, okay. That's not so bad_. "...Okay."

Immediately, one of the kids stepped forward, a scowl set firmly on his face. "Why do you wear such stupid glasses?"

Then Iruka did a very _odd_ thing. He made some sort of a sound between a gasp, a stammer, and after a sharp intake of breath, he shouted, "T...that is _not_ a ninja question!"

Another kid stepped forward, a little girl. She tugged on Shino's coat, staring up at him with big innocent eyes, "Why is your coat so big? Do you keep things in there?"

Shino did not like where this was going.

The kid from before, who Shino had now made an unconscious decision to name _the brat_, spoke again. "And why do you keep your hands in your pockets all the time? ...It makes you look weird."

Of course. Shino was not just weird, but _weird_. There was a difference.

Another kid spoke up, though less bold than the others. "S...sometimes when you walk by our house my big sister screams 'ewwww' and talks about how all the girls think you're weird, and that you do rituals with bugs.. I-i-is that true?"

_The brat _spoke again. "And what's up with your hair? I think it's _stupid_."

Shino found many thoughts going through his mind at once, some of them depressing and a few of them violent. Only one of them seemed appropriate to share.

"I wear sunglasses so my enemies won't realize I'm getting ready to kill them," he said in his usual deadpan tone.

Suddenly all the kids got very quiet. Shino was tempted to tell them he was joking, but since he wasn't, he just continued to stand there.

Iruka was the first to say something. "Uh, lunchtime, class dismissed!"

The kids all jumped up and ran.

There was a small awkward pause before Iruka turned to him, looking embarrassed, "Well, that... went rather well, didn't it?"

He was met with silence.

Shino realized Iruka, sensei of his academy days, was waiting for a reply, and probably a polite one letting him off the hook for his blunder, but Shino was simply too bored to bother. So, with a small shrug of his shoulders he simply turned and walked away, wondering where to go next.

Shino started to recognize the pangs of hunger starting, and the thought popped into his mind that noodles actually sounded pretty good, so he headed that way. Just a few steps from the shop he suddenly paused, instantly recognizing Naruto's voice, and cringing ever so slightly at what that implied.

"Oi, old man, another bowl please! Hahaha! ...H-hey, of course I have money today..."

Shino promptly turned right back around.

Anywhere was fine with him, as long as it didn't include an encounter with Naruto. He didn't really have anything against the boy, he was just... very _loud_.

After awhile his hunger pangs had increased, and he considered his other options for dealing with them. Hmmm, perhaps some Korean BBQ would taste good. After all, Chouji practically lived on the stuff!

Shino rounded the corner, heading for the entrance to the Konoha's popular Korean BBQ restaurant while pondering what he would order when he suddenly found himself pulling back into the shadows.. Whoa...good thing his natural instinctive sense of self-preservation had taken over. Thank goodness for all that ninja training! He'd been so busy pondering his order that his conscious mind hadn't registered the awful truth: He was hearing the cacophony of voices belonging to the little group that so often inhabited BBQ Booth Number Nine.. Yup. That was Asuma, Shikamura and, of course, Chouji. And of course, Chouji was doing his usual chant.

"_More meat, more meat...hey...is anybody listening...I want more meat...!"_

Hovering in the shadows and listening to this awful sound, Shino shuddered with revulsion. He just wasn't up to dealing with that crowd, not today, not while suffering such infernal boredom. His shoulders slumped as he admitted to himself he was going to have to forget BBQ and keep moving. Somewhere there must be food that wasn't tainted with unbearable annoyance in human form. But where? He decided to send some of his tiny ninja partners on a reconnaissance mission to check things out. Meanwhile, he could relax in the shade and wait for them to return. After all, he was a ninja. He could stand the hunger pangs a little longer. _Right?_ Right.

After setting his partners off on their mission, Shino settled down in the shade a large tree to await their return and found himself drifting into a daydream about...

"Ahgghhaahhh! Euwwww! _O-mi-god_!"

The sound of a shrieking voice filled with terror and panic pierced Shino's daydream, pulling him to his feet.

He ran toward the sound, skidding to a stop in front of a beautiful pink haired ninja in the middle of a full blown hissy-fit. The reason for her distress was literally _buzzing_ all around her.

He silently ordered his bugs to return to him as he frantically racked his brain, trying to think of some way to calm down Sakura. He knew from past experience that once she was this worked up it could be hell to pay for quite awhile. And he knew that since he was the source of the bugs he was gonna pay hell no matter what he did.

He considered twelve kinds of ways to apologize to her, and he considered just disappearing before she calmed down enough to be fully aware of his presence.

_Should he?_

Shino listened to the report his bugs had for him as he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

He wasn't sure Sakura hadn't seen him, but he was hoping that was the case.

He continued to move at his fastest speed to the location recommended by his bugs, feeling safer as he put distance between himself and Sakura, and arriving at the training ground snack bar only a little flustered, and rather strangely, not quite as bored as he'd been just a moment or two before.

Taking a deep breath he calmly ordered some sushi rice balls and tea, grabbed a bag of chips, and looked around for a quiet place to enjoy his lunch.

He still wasn't feeling safe enough to sit out in the open at the picnic table provided by the snack bar, so he ambled over to an isolated tree stump in a little used area of the training grounds.

Finally he sat down, ready to enjoy his lunch. _Oh hell! Now what?_

"Shino-san, is that you?" .

Turning slowly Shino faced the inevitable, and looked up into big round brown eyes gazing at him from beneath very shaggy eyebrows. Softly sighing, he regarded Rock Lee as patiently as he could, hoping Lee was alone.

Before he could say anything he was disabused of this hope, for rising up from behind Lee, like a huge green geyser, Gai-sensei laughed down at him, boisterously striking a dramatic pose and bellowing something incomprehensible about the springtime of youth.

Shino felt absolutely devastated, and wondered if this was a sort of cosmic penance he was being given for wimping out from facing Sakura.

Suddenly the boredom was back in full force.

"Shino-san are you here to train with us? Gai-sensei and I getting ready to start a 600 mile run. It'll only take us two days to complete, and you're more than welcome to join us, isn't that right Gai-sensei?"

All of this gushed out of Lee's mouth so fast that Shino, in his renewed state of advanced boredom, had trouble absorbing it. He just sat there gazing up at them feeling befuddled and lost, and tired, and very very bored.

"Come on Shino, hop to it," bellowed Gai-sensei.

"Let's go!" Yelled Lee as he furiously pumped his fist in the air.

Fortunately, this got Gai-sensei so excited he forgot all about waiting for Shino's answer, and he took off like a green bat out of hell, with Lee dashing off behind him.

Shino sat perfectly still, afraid to breathe, in case the sudden stillness would be broken. Finally he came out of his catatonic state, let out a long breath, allowed himself a half smile, and looked down at his lunch, thinking everything was going to be alright after all.

As he popped a sushi ball into his mouth he felt some of the tension draining out of him, and even perhaps some of the boredom. Just as he began to swallow he felt himself flying through the air, feeling as though he'd been bashed in the back with a brick.

As he landed he heard, as though from very far away...

"Shino, if you ever send your bugs to bother me again I will break every bone in your body. I will pull out your hair. I will break your sunglasses. I will, I will..."

Sakura had found him after all.

Shino thought about playing dead. He thought about dying for real. He thought about a lot of things. Then he realized, he'd be happier, and no doubt safer, if he just went home and helped his dad with the housework. After all, cleaning and polishing the Aburame bugs wasn't really hard work. It was, well, it was just kind of boring sometimes. And all of a sudden he realized, _it was just what he wanted to do._

As he trudged towards home he wondered what his dad had made for lunch. His dad was a_ very _good cook, so maybe there was something to look forward to.

After all, Shino was still very hungry, and taking care of that problem wouldn't be boring at all. Well, he was pretty sure it wouldn't. Okay, he was _hoping_ it wouldn't.


End file.
